Report cards go home to Westmont families on Wednesday, November 25. Across British Columbia, families in every kind of school will open a similar document sometime this fall, and a good number of them will read it twice, then a third time, still unsure what it is telling them.

That reaction makes sense. The report card most of today’s parents grew up with was a column of letters and a few lines of comments. The one coming home this month is organized differently, uses different words, and asks you to read it differently. Nothing about that is a problem once you know what you are looking at. We wrote this guide so that when the report arrives, you can read it with confidence and turn it into a useful conversation with your child and their teacher.

Why BC report cards look different now

The change has been years in the making. BC began modernizing its curriculum in 2016, and reporting was updated to match. In June 2023, the province announced that the 2023-24 school year would be the first in which every BC school district used the Provincial Proficiency Scale on Kindergarten to Grade 9 report cards instead of letter grades. Letter grades and percentages stayed in place for Grades 10, 11 and 12, where they support applications to post-secondary programs.

The province’s own guide for families explains the thinking behind the shift in a single line: reporting is designed to keep students focused on learning rather than competing for marks. The proficiency scale describes where a child is in their understanding of each area of learning. It does not rank them against classmates.

The number of updates changed as well. BC families now receive at least five communications about their child’s learning each school year: three written and two informal, such as conferences between parents and teachers. For independent schools in Groups 1, 2 and 4, a separate provincial policy that took effect on September 1, 2025 sets the same baseline, with at least three written updates including a summary at the end of the year.

So the November report card is not a verdict on the year. It is one checkpoint in a series, and it arrives early enough that there is plenty of time to act on what it says.

The four words on the scale, in plain language

If your child is in Kindergarten to Grade 9 and their report uses the Provincial Proficiency Scale, you will see one of four words beside each area of learning. Here is what the province says each one means, translated into everyday language.

Emerging means your child is beginning to understand something in that area of learning. They have started. They may need more support to move ahead, and the province is explicit that Emerging does not mean a child is unsuccessful.

Developing means your child understands some things in that area and still has other parts to work on. This is a very normal place to be partway through a school year, because much of the year’s learning has not yet been taught. Like Emerging, Developing is not a sign of failure.

Proficient means your child fully understands the learning that was expected. This is the goal. The province describes Proficient as the goal for every student, and it is worth reading that sentence twice. Proficient is not “average.” It is the standard the curriculum is built around.

Extending means your child shows a deeper understanding and can apply their learning in new and different ways. The province notes that Extending is not the goal for every student in every area of learning.

That last point catches many parents off guard. If you grew up in a system where an A was the target, it is natural to read Proficient as a B and Extending as an A. The scale does not work that way. A report full of Proficient means your child has learned what they were meant to learn.

Emerging is a starting point

Seeing Emerging beside a subject can sting, especially for a parent who remembers what a D felt like. It helps to look at timing first. A November report reflects a few months of learning. Some concepts in that area may have been introduced only weeks ago, and a child who is just getting started with them is exactly where the word says they are.

It also helps to look at the comment that sits beside the word. The scale tells you where your child is. The comment tells you why, and what is planned next. A teacher who marks Emerging and writes about a specific skill being practised, with a clear next step, is describing a normal stage of learning. If the comment points to something broader, such as a child who is avoiding the work or seems discouraged, that is worth a conversation, and the report has done its job by bringing it to the surface early.

What Emerging does not tell you is that your child is behind for good, that they are not capable, or that something has gone wrong with their schooling. Children learn unevenly. It is common for one child to be Extending in one area and Emerging in another on the same report.

What Extending tells you, and what it doesn’t

Extending is good news, and you can enjoy it. It means your child is showing depth, making connections, and using what they have learned in new situations.

It is also worth a little curiosity. Ask what Extending looks like in practice for your child, and what their teacher is doing to keep them challenged. A child who finds an area easy can drift into coasting if the work stops stretching them. In a Montessori classroom, where children move through materials and work at their own pace rather than waiting for the whole class, a child who is ready for more can usually be given more. Asking how that is happening for your child is a fair and useful question in any school.

Extending in one area also says nothing about the others. Read the whole report, not just the highlights.

Read the comments before the scale

If you only have ten minutes with the report, spend most of them on the written comments.

BC’s reporting policy for independent schools spells out what these comments are meant to do. Each course or subject in a written update needs descriptive feedback that describes the student’s learning against the standard, focuses on their strengths, supports specific goals for further development, and uses clear language that the student and parent can understand. Public schools work from the same principles.

That means a well-written comment should answer three questions for you. What is my child doing well? Where are they heading next? What specifically will help them get there? When a comment answers all three, you have something to work with at home. When it answers only one, you have a good starting point for a follow-up conversation.

A useful habit is to underline the specific nouns and verbs in each comment. “Explains her reasoning when solving two-step problems” tells you far more than “strong in math.” The specific details are where the teacher’s observation lives, and they are what you can talk about with your child.

The section your child wrote

Many parents skim past this part. Please don’t.

Written learning updates in BC include student self-reflection on the Core Competencies, which the province groups into three areas: communication, thinking, and personal and social. Students also set goals. Younger children’s reflections may be a few words or a drawing. Older students may write several thoughtful paragraphs.

This section is a window into how your child sees themselves as a learner. Sometimes it matches the teacher’s comments closely. Sometimes it doesn’t, and that gap is interesting. A child who rates their own communication skills low while their teacher describes them as a clear and confident speaker may need encouragement more than instruction. A child who rates everything highly may benefit from a gentle conversation about what “doing well” looks like.

Read the goal your child set, then ask them about it. Children are often more invested in a goal they chose themselves, and knowing what it is gives you a natural way to check in over the coming months.

How reporting works in our High School

For families in our High School, reports follow the rhythm of the program. The High School year is organized into four eight-week cycles, and reporting happens at the end of each one. Our High School Cycle 1 reports are scheduled for November 27.

Because High School students learn through multi-disciplinary projects rather than separate timetabled classes, each report names the courses a student is taking (for example, English Language Arts 9 or Chemistry 11) and shows which big ideas, content and curricular competencies were covered through that cycle’s project. Students assess their own work through rubrics and reflection questions, faculty complete rubrics for every part of the project, and students reflect on the Core Competencies they drew on during the cycle. Students receive a grade in each course at the end of each cycle and a final grade at the end of the year, once all projects are complete.

For Grades 10 to 12, those grades appear as letter grades and percentages, in line with provincial requirements. If you are new to project-based reporting, the most useful thing to do is read the project description alongside the grades. The project is where the learning happened, and the grade makes more sense once you can see what your child actually did.

What to say to your child about their report

How you respond to a report card in the first few minutes shapes how your child feels about the next one.

Start with effort and specifics rather than levels. Pointing to a particular comment, such as a teacher noticing that your child helps younger classmates or sticks with difficult problems, tells your child that you read the report closely and care about how they learn, not only how they scored. That message carries further than a general “well done.”

Be careful with rewards and consequences tied to the scale. Because Proficient is the goal for every student, treating it as a disappointment sends a confusing message. Paying for Extending, or taking away privileges for Emerging, can shift a child’s attention from learning to the label. The whole point of BC’s approach is to keep that attention on learning.

If your child is upset about part of their report, take the feeling seriously before you move to problem-solving. A child who feels heard is far more willing to talk about what comes next. And if the report is strong across the board, enjoy it together. Celebrating good news is part of a healthy relationship with school.

What a report card can’t tell you

A report card is a careful, structured description of learning in each subject. It is not a full portrait of a child.

It will not show you how your child behaves when a friend is upset, what they are curious about outside the curriculum, how they spend a free work period, or whether they have found their people this year. It will not capture the moment a concept finally clicked, or the project they are proudest of. Those things show up in conversations, in the work your child brings home, and in what they choose to tell you over dinner.

Read the report closely, and then hold it alongside everything else you know.

Turning the report into a conversation

A report card is most useful when it starts a conversation rather than ends one. There are two conversations worth having.

The first is with your child, and it is worth having before you talk to anyone else. Start with what they are proud of. Ask them which part of the report surprised them, if any. Ask what they think their teacher meant by a specific comment. Children are often clearer about their own learning than we expect, and hearing their version first means you go into any meeting with a fuller picture.

The second is with your child’s teacher. You do not need a formal meeting to ask a question about a report card, and teachers generally prefer an early, curious question to a late, worried one. Good questions are specific. Ask what a particular comment looks like day to day in the classroom. Ask what the next step is for an area marked Emerging or Developing, and how you can support it at home. Ask how your child is doing socially, since a report card has limited space for that. Ask what your child chooses to work on when they have a choice, which tells you a great deal about their interests and confidence.

Bring the report with you, with your notes on it. It keeps the conversation focused, and it shows your child’s teacher which parts you want to understand better.

When something in the report surprises you

Sometimes a report card says something you did not expect. A child who seems confident at home is described as quiet at school. A subject you thought was going well is marked Developing. A comment mentions a challenge you had not heard about.

Surprise is information, not a reason to panic. Before reacting, reread the comment slowly, then put the report down for a day. Talk with your child about it in an open way, without leading them toward an answer. Then reach out to the teacher and ask them to help you understand what they are seeing. Most surprises turn out to have a straightforward explanation: a unit that was harder than usual, a child who is still settling in, or a difference between how a child behaves in a group of peers and how they behave at the kitchen table.

If the surprise points to something that needs more attention, the timing is on your side. A November report leaves most of the school year ahead, with more written and informal updates to come. That is plenty of time for a child, their family and their teachers to work on it together.

The report card is one part of the picture

At Westmont, we have spent 67 years learning how children learn, on a 143-acre campus where much of that learning happens through hands-on work, projects and time outdoors. A report card captures part of that picture. Your child’s own words capture more of it. Conversations with the people who see them every day fill in the rest.

When the report arrives on November 25, read the comments first, read your child’s reflection second, and treat the four words on the scale as a description rather than a grade. Then talk about it, with your child and with their teacher.

Questions about your child’s progress, or about how we report on learning at Westmont? Reach out to our team. We welcome these conversations.

Sources

Government of British Columbia, K-12 Student Reporting: One-Pager for Parents and Caregivers

Government of British Columbia, K-12 Independent Schools Student Progress Reporting Policy

BC Gov News, news release on K-9 student reporting, June 23, 2023